Hoop Masters Blog

By John Fischer
Hoop Masters

All across America, in bars and barber shops, in living rooms and locker rooms, in gyms after pickup games, the debate continues – Who is the greatest basketball player of all time? And the answer is…we still can’t decide. Kareem, Chamberlain, Jordan, Russell, Shaq – yes, Shaq, all get top votes. Maybe it will be Kobe or one day, Lebron James. But today, I want to talk about two players that I believe had the biggest impact on the game. Not just the NBA, but all of basketball from top to bottom. The play of these two individuals literally changed the game – not just the rules as in the case of Jordan and Chamberlain, but the actual culture of basketball. The two biggest impact players? Julius Erving and Magic Johnson.

Magic Johnson

I am accusing Magic Johnson of a game-changing crime. The post game is dead, and we know who the perp is – Magic Johnson killed it. He didn’t mean to do that, it just happened. I guess that means we can reduce the charge from post-murder to post-slaughter, because I can say in my heart of hearts he did not mean to do it. Shaquille O’Neal has kept it alive, but after he retires, the post game is officially demised (it might stay on life support with Dwight Howard, but after that it’s over).

By all standards at the time, Magic Johnson should never have played point guard. He should have been a power forward – the recipient of passes from the point guard. No one expected a 6-9 (legit 6-9) player to handle the ball – in the open court, broken court and in traffic with such ease. Great point guards were guys like Archibald and Frazier – shorter, quicker guys who could penetrate and make plays. No one ever thought that a 6-9 guy could play that spot with the same effectiveness. The Houston Rockets had Robert Reid playing point occasionally, and he was 6-8, but he was no Magic.

As Magic’s career was ending, a new mindset was developing in parents of tall children all across the country. No one wanted their Johnnie (big Johnnie) to be “stuck in the post” on their basketball teams. It didn’t matter if Johnnie got the ball on every possession and scored. Dad and Mom wanted to see Johnnie dribble the ball like a point guard and shoot the ball just like the little guys got to do. Thus began the death of the post game. Few people realize that post play is not the easiest thing to learn, and it doesn’t get easier because you are taller. It takes years to learn proper post footwork, positioning, shooting angles and most importantly, the feel of the defender. You don’t just show up in college at 6-10 and start dominating in the post unless you have been playing that position for awhile, and for good coaches. Otherwise, at 6-10 and no shooting/ball handling ability, you are known as a stiff. In the old days, a 6th grader who was 6 ft tall would play center. Same with a 6-2 7th grader, and a 6-4 8th grader. No matter what kind of team – school team, recreation team or club team, either the head coach or an assistant would work with these players in the post to teach them the fine art of effectively scoring. These players would then go to high schools and in many cases, play the same position for their high school team that had the same system. It made sense – get the ball as close to the basket as possible in the hands of a tall player equipped with the skills to put it in the basket.

Magic Johnson steamrolled completely over this mindset like Patton’s end run across France. Eventually, parents started fleeing teams where Johnnie was stuck in the post and coaches started teaching all of their players how to handle the ball and how to shoot from distance and how to play facing the basket, and somehow, teaching how to play with your back to the basket got left behind. Today, we have fewer effective post players than at any time in the history of the game (including high school, college and professional levels). Even our counterparts in Europe are developing 6-10 guys who step out and shoot the 3. Other than super human sized individuals (like Shaq), we may never see a true center again. Kevin Love might be the closest thing, as crazy as that sounds.

So I rest my case. The post game is dead. Magic Johnson, whether he knew it or not, killed it. His mere presence and style of play changed the game right in front of our eyes, and it caused a whole new mindset to evolve.

Julius Erving

For the longest time, dunking did not have the full respect of coaches, players and fans. You could dunk the ball, but no one did so with any regularity in games. Truth is, for guys 6-5 and smaller, it was an incredible demonstration of athletic ability and grace. For taller players, it was just something they could do because they were tall. But many people involved in the game did not value the dunk. If you missed a dunk in the 60s or 70s, chances are you were pulled from the game. When I was a kid growing up, dunking the ball wasn’t even allowed in college and in high school (thanks to Lew Alcindor)! Players like Alcindor and Russell and Chamberlain could all dunk with ease and did so regularly, but the old school coaches just turned away from it instead of embracing it.

Then came the Doctor. Erving played the game high in the air, which just wasn’t that common in the early 70s. Julius Erving dunked the ball regularly, and he did it with style, athleticism, grace and one more thing – power. Erving was literally throwing it down before anyone thought to call it throwing it down. And while the old guard still turned away at first, eventually, you couldn’t ignore it – and in fact, you were an idiot if you didn’t embrace it. Simply put, Erving took something that was okay for some, not for others, and really not accepted by the basketball establishment and turned it into the easiest and most reliable shot in basketball. Not only is it accepted, it is how the game is represented in highlight after highlight. Thanks to Erving, that 6-9 post player who finds himself all alone under the basket need not worry dunking the ball.

In fact, if he simply lays it up and somehow misses the target or it gets swatted from an unseen defender, the next sound you hear will be the horn, and as the player is heading to the bench his coaches will tell him, “You should have thrown that down!”

Like it or not, these two men caused changes in the game – not just rule changes, but changes in our attitude and philosophy and how we play the game. Further, we show no signs of deviating from the course these two men established 20-30 years ago. I believe that means they deserve mention in any conversation where the goal is to determine the greatest basketball player ever. It won’t help us get to an answer any quicker, but at least we’ll have all the players in the discussion.